A year ago, the city of Raqqa in northern Syria was sprouting political activist groups and philosophical discussion circles. A guerrilla gardening squad promoted environmental awareness by planting vegetables in central reservations.

The liberals who made it a base after the rebels swept in and drove out the regime in March last year are gone, disbanded, accused of supporting democracy and other kuffar or infidel beliefs, their members living either underground or in Turkey.

The city has been transformed into a staging ground for displays of the harshest justice meted out by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the jihadi group too extreme even for al-Qaeda that has imposed its rule over large parts of the country.

Refugees, women still living under its rule and men who have escaped from its prisons have told Telegraph of the life under the shadow of the extremist groups black flag.

One woman, whose name the Telegraph knows but is withholding, described how she went to the recruiting office of an all-women jihad unit, formed from the women who have flocked to Syria from Europe and elsewhere to serve the cause, some with their children.

I went inside their headquarters, which used to be the Christian church, she said. I asked what the conditions were to join. They said you have to be 18-25, unmarried, and you would earn 25,000 Syrian pounds.

You got to love it. The liberals helped get rid of the oppressive assad regime only to find that the new bosses are worse then the old bosses and now the liberals are dead, jailed or hiding. Who did not see this coming. You just can’t fix stupid.

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